Interests:UW video for a living, Diving in general, learning, interacting with people that carry passion in what they do.

Posted 04 August 2005 - 04:12 AM

Back on the housings available,the latest news I have is the soon availability of the Seacam's HD/H1 and the current availability of the Silverfish (from AVD Videoproduktion GmbH).The latest is a generic housing for lanc-compliant camcorders.So, the question is What could be the advantages of a dedicated housing compared to an generic one supporting lanc ?In the case a generic one is fine, what are the others lanc-compliant housings (not too big ).

In order to use the still/photo mode, I suppose the horseshoe have to be used to have control on an external TTL, that is to say the housing must have the appropriate internal wiring... Any experience on that ?

PS: havent found the appropriate codec either to play the Reefkeep's clipThanks,Dan.

Ive done a little bit of research into the Silverfish as I was concerned by the lack of options avaliable with the standard housing i.e. no manual white balance control. I have recieved a reply from them and they can offer this through the LANC, but it means sending the housing to another company (www.hgvt.de) for the modifications - the cost of each mod they did not give me.

I can certainly see the advantages of having the generic housing, especially in terms of future camcorder purchases, as this would cut down the cost of upgrading significantly - although I have never seen/used one of these housings before and i would love some more info if anyone has any?

As for other housings. I have visited the Seacam site and there is not much info on there at all!

Ill post updates as I get them - Im still waiting for the preview on Amphibico's site!

Interests:UW video for a living, Diving in general, learning, interacting with people that carry passion in what they do.

Posted 04 August 2005 - 05:39 PM

Some more info I got today:1) Seacam Our HD/H1 housing is available and consist of an updated DV/S7 housing. The housing has a metallic gray finish w/silver graphics and black lens and handles.

The housing will cost $1699.00, and will include a 4" high resolution TFT/LCD color monitor.2) SilverfishThe price for the housing including one set of four mignon cells is EUR 1,799.00, VAT included, forwarding expenses not included. You may order directly at AVD Videoproduktion.According to the technical description the new SONY HDR HC1 is compatible with SILVERFISH (dimensions and LANC connectivity). Only an adapter for the audio/video output is necessary (available at AVD Videoproduktion, 49 EUR). The company HGVT offers the service to extend the functional assignment of the push button switches by additional functions corresponding with customer-specific wishes. For this purpose, the equipment has to be sent in to HGVT. More information available at HGVT only.

""...Our new micro-controller will have a White Balance button, however most manufacture's White Balance control is simply recycling the internal software the camera uses when it first starts up, the same thing that happens when you turn camera "On". I simply turn the camera "Off" after shooting a scene, and restarting the camera and it's White Balance routine, to "White Balance"....

I was just wondering, isn't anyone annoyed by the tape bottom-loading feature on the HC1? It doesn't seem very smart, no matter what type of housing it gets into.
Or is it just a minor nuisance..., 'cause the HC1 is on top of my purchase list right now.

Just to bring up other options - AquaVideo has a housing already out for the HC1 - there are 3 that have been made so far. If you're not familiar with the AquaVideo housings, let me just say that it's the only housing I've seen stuck in the mouth of a tiger shark multiple times without flooding. The handling in-water of their housings is superb - on the last bahamas trip I worked on a passenger with a different brand housing (I won't say what brand, but it was black and heavy) decided to order an AquaVideo housing and sell her Gates after she compared them in the water. They are a fantastic deal.

I have a miniDV housing from Undersea Video Housings for my HDR-HC1. I just returned from Tonga yesterday. I shot a lot of footage, but really haven't had time to analyze it yet. The camera fits into the housing perfectly (almost no spare room), and Warren of USVH couldn't be better to deal with. As of now, I can not access WB.

Just recieved this reply from Amphibico. Still a little wait, but its should definetly be worth it!

****************************************************************
Thank you for the interest in Amphibico products, producing images even
better than the real thing....

We have had a great success with our new Phenom FXZ1 housing..

Our engineers are designing it should be available this fall. October or
November. Cost will be $1995US for the basic Dive Buddy EVO HC1, consumer
version one electronic grip, manual white balance, we will also have a pro
version available in December cost around $2800US have a second electronic
grip with added manual focus and also have auto/on /off exposure

Both will have access to the manual white balance.

We will have a preview on our site in about 2 to 3 weeks.
*****************************************************************

Partially true Lambis
Yes any HQ source material will look much better downconverted to DVD Mpeg2 stream. But there is a downconversion. Even with the growing popularity of progressive scan DVD players, the quality difference is not that significant. With the HC1, it records in 1080i, so you also have to deinterlace the material during downconversion. It's not fun and you better have a lot of computer power. Present DVD players are not HD quality. And the advantage of HD is that it is native 16:9 as you say. But there's no easy way to convert to DVD stream source from HDV YET!

Drew
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